Chattanooga’s Innovation District Beckons to Young Entrepreneurs

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — From Boston to Seattle, cities across the country are vying to create technology hubs, spurring real estate developments to attract start-ups and young entrepreneurs.

To the south, this smaller but thriving city is seeing returns on its effort to do the same. Chattanooga has leveraged its lightning-fast broadband connections to develop a tech scene in its recently designed innovation district, a 140-acre section of its compact central business district.

At the district’s core, the Edney Innovation Center draws young entrepreneurs who pace across the polished concrete floors and talk business from couches and beanbag chairs that give the 90,000-square-foot office building the feel of a college study hall.

The Edney Center is a crucible for advancing their ideas. Purchased and renovated for $4.4 million by Talon Partners, a group of local developers, the 10-story building opened in October at Market and 11th Streets. It is seen by Chattanooga’s civic leaders as the gateway to the city’s commanding new business enterprise — using the six-year-old ultra-high-speed broadband network to attract and assist high-tech start-ups in becoming mature, homegrown companies.

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The Intelligent Community Forum is a global network with a think tank at its center. It connects hundreds of cities and regions on five continents for collaboration on economic development and for exchange of expertise and information that drives progress. Through this network, ICF researches how Intelligent Communities use information and communications technology to build inclusive prosperity, solve social problems and enrich their quality of life in our connected century.